Self-Efficacy,Curriculum Content,Practicum Experience,and the Interest of Social Work Students in Gerontology

The present study examined the linkages among perceptions of self-efficacy, curriculum, and field experience on students’ attitudes and interest in working with older adults. Graduate level social work students were surveyed regarding perceived self-efficacy to intervene with older adult clients, the amount of aging content in the master of social work (MSW) curriculum, and practicum experience with older clients. Regression analysis showed a relationship between attitudes toward older adults and perceptions of self-efficacy. Pearson correlations revealed that self-efficacy was significantly related to levels of gerontology content in curriculum, as well as practicum opportunities to work with older adults. While both gerontology curriculum and practice experience significantly predicted self-efficacy, multiple regression analysis revealed that practice experience had the stronger influence.     

Special care needs and risk for child maltreatment reports among babies that graduated from the Neonatal Intensive Care

Newborns discharged from intensive care are at elevated risk for child welfare reports, especially for child neglect. This study investigates the role of caregiving burden as a risk predictor among the NICU graduate population. Discharge data were captured for 2,463 infants graduating from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during 2005–2008, then linked to child welfare reports at a median 3.2 year follow-up. Survival analyses were used to examine child welfare report outcomes conditional on caregiving burden and its moderating relationships with other family risk factors. Caregiving burden was associated primarily with an increased risk of child welfare reporting during the first few months to first year of life, after which risk was similar to NICU graduates without caregiving burden. Caregiving burden effects were potentiated by having three or more siblings in the family. A history of prior child welfare reports predicted very high risk, regardless of caregiving burden. Young maternal age increased risk. The findings suggest that the immediate months after NICU discharge may be an important window of child neglect prevention opportunity among newborns with special caregiving needs. This may be a key time to provide caregiver support and monitoring, particularly when caregivers have multiple children.     

Teaching the introductory communication theory course to undergraduates

This essay explores the introduction to communication theory course for undergraduates. The authors discuss several key notions for making the course valuable to the undergraduate: the attitude of the instructor, the attitude of the students, course requirements, and evaluation techniques.     

Social Perception in Infancy: A Near Infrared Spectroscopy Study

The capacity to engage and communicate in a social world is one of the defining characteristics of the human species. While the network of regions that compose the social brain have been the subject of extensive research in adults, there are limited techniques available for monitoring young infants. This study used near infrared spectroscopy to investigate functional activation in the social brain network of 36 five-month-old infants. We measured the hemodynamic responses to visually presented stimuli in the temporal lobes. A significant increase in oxyhemoglobin was localized to 2 posterior temporal sites bilaterally, indicating that these areas are involved in the social brain network in young infants.